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I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

electronicmaterialsoffice.com

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Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#561

Post by smrtinsert »

freedomben wrote: post #449
interleave wrote: post #423

This looks fantastic! A thought-experiment that may interest you coming from someone (me) who already has happily spent several hundreds of dollars on mechanical keyboards and uses them every single day: Let's imagine the keyboard could be bought today as-is with a simple "Buy Now" button and price was no concern. The two main reasons I would _still_ hesitate to hit that button are: 1. I absolutely and undoubtedly ne…

> 2. I wish there was a 'blank' version with zero typography anywhere. Just all black. I touch-type and have not looked at my keyboard in 15 years. If you don't look at it, why do you care if it has typography? (that's an honest question, not a rhetorical point dressed up as a question)

First thought was he saw this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHt01D6rOLI&ab_channel=JomaT...

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#562

Post by smrtinsert »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #480
interleave wrote: post #423

This looks fantastic! A thought-experiment that may interest you coming from someone (me) who already has happily spent several hundreds of dollars on mechanical keyboards and uses them every single day: Let's imagine the keyboard could be bought today as-is with a simple "Buy Now" button and price was no concern. The two main reasons I would _still_ hesitate to hit that button are: 1. I absolutely and undoubtedly ne…

Down in tech specs it says the switches are Kailh Chocolate Low Profile Reds, which are a reasonably common linear switch. Also, OP, you've got a typo in those same specs: OS support is listed as "Apple MacOS 12 (Monteray) and up". That should be Monterey with an E. I'm a bit curious why the keyboard requires MacOS 12 or Windows 10, and doesn't list Linux support...it's an HID device. Just about anything will work, r…

Same question, the command iconography is a turn off. I'm a mixed owner and prefer peripherals that flawlessly work on both.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#563

Post by mrb »

I love your keyboard at first sight. The placement of the keys is similar to some popular keyboards like Lenovo laptops (eg. from the bottom left: Fn, Ctrl, Opt/Win, Cmd/Alt, then the spacebar) , so it should be relatively easy to get used to given the strong muscle memory that typists have developed over time. Personally I would probably remap in software the right Opt key to a Ctrl key in order to imitate Lenovo laptops, as that's the hardware I'm used to.

I think the placement of the up arrow to the right of the shift key is great, as they are normal-size keys. Lenovo gives the arrow keys standard width but only 3/4 height so they feel too small.

The raised and sunk key shapes probably feels good in real life. Another way to get tactile feedback and know you fingers are in the right position.

I subscribed to your waitlist, and plan to purchase one. Well done, thumbs up!

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#566

Post by metabagel »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #531
akpa1 wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same here. As much as I'd love to go and use a keyboard like the one shown here, my split ortholinear board has done my wrists and shoulders a world of good. It's so much more comfortable than using any other standard keyboard.

Which keyboard are you using?

Kinesis Freestyle Pro is a decent option, although not cheap. You can get tilt brackets for it, which relieve you from having to rotate your wrists quite as far.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#567

Post by Workaccount2 »

paledot wrote: post #338

I want to hear more about what you expect the rotary encoder to be used for. You clearly put a lot of thought into making it happen, so - why? I feel like there must be some interesting use cases, but I'm drawing a blank.

If OP reads this

Switch out that selector switch for a knob with an indent. Its just annoying and bad feeling to free spin a selector switch like that. For stuff like scrolling and volume adjust, you want to be able to do it effortlessly with one finger.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#568

Post by TacticalCoder »

entropie wrote: post #554
freedomben wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2. I wish there was a 'blank' version with zero typography anywhere. Just all black. I touch-type and have not looked at my keyboard in 15 years. If you don't look at it, why do you care if it has typography? (that's an honest question, not a rhetorical point dressed up as a question)

I bought (imported!) a happy hacking pro 2 like 8 years ago and I wanted it to be blank. There was no german layout (still not existing?) and wrong labels are a no go for me. Its still my daily driver and I love it. Just yesterday I cleaned it, removed every key etc. Its every time a total mess to put it together but I eventually made it.

> Just yesterday I cleaned it, removed every key etc. Its every time a total mess to put it together but I eventually made it.

I regularly clean my HHKB. I simply remove all the keys and lay them out in the exact same layout as they're on the keyboard, which makes it easy to then put them back on. I cannot believe the filth that's underneath the keys and always think: "I can't believe it's been that long I haven't cleaned it"... Yuck. Keyboards are disgusting!

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#570

Post by cantSpellSober »

Cool, congrats and thanks for sharing, we need more competition here

1. raised/indented keys will get dirty really fast, an option without would sell me

2. 2-device pairing is great, your competitors have 3 though

3. hot-swap keycaps would be a huge sell

4. nice typography, why isn't the logo in it? take off the logo

5. replace the empty area with home => end

6. 3 modifiers on the left, 3 right please! (not 4-left/2-right)

7. options for other keycap sets later?

8. dial is too tall, removable? swappable? jog dial?

9. love the giant esc key, L-shaped enter

10. esc keycap to replace caps would be awesome

11. show me a pic of the full cable/any more details here

12. what are the feet like? foam? rubber? adjustable height?

13. neat website but moves too much, show me a boring gallery of static images somewhere please

14. add clit mouse

15. sustainable material means something to me and makes me more want to buy, really!

16. don't add LEDs, i'd rather save money

17. lmk when it's ergo (cries in carpal tunnel)

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